{"id":29,"date":"2019-08-22T20:24:27","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T00:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/settlement\/chapter\/lawsofsettlements_book_lod_1_creation\/"},"modified":"2020-04-24T09:36:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T13:36:57","slug":"lawsofsettlements_book_lod_1_creation","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/settlement\/chapter\/lawsofsettlements_book_lod_1_creation\/","title":{"raw":"Creation","rendered":"Creation"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_28\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1000\"]\"Buildings Barcelona, Spain. Image courtesy of Author.[\/caption]\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n
\r\n

<\/a>1.<\/span> Human settlements are the product of different forces and serve to satisfy the human needs of inhabitants and others.<\/strong><\/h1>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Settlements are born from human needs. Satisfying core physical needs\u2014such as access to clean water, air, food and physical safety (Law 3<\/a>)\u2014are critical starting points. However, given that settlements also facilitate human interactions, they are created to accommodate and formalize collective values, desires and requirements. In the words of Kevin Lynch, \u201cThe form of a settlement is always willed and valued, but its complexity and its inertia frequently obscure those connections\u201d (Lynch, 1984, p. 36).<\/p>\r\n

Lynch\u2019s quote speaks well to the complex, diverse forces and needs that give birth to settlements, and one of the most obvious forces revolves around the natural context (Laws 31<\/a>-32<\/a><\/span>). In the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Guns Germs and Steel<\/span><\/em><\/span>, for example, Jared Diamond shows how geography and conditions that were favourable to agriculture led to the birth of a number of civilizations and their respective settlements. These civilizations, in turn, created technologies, social institutions, immunities to diseases and other cultural phenomena that led to certain societies overtaking others.<\/p>\r\n

Economic forces, such as trade, are also clear drivers in the creation and development of settlements. For example, if a number of towns require a large market centre to serve them, a settlement may be created in an area that best suits this purpose. Trade, moreover, is often associated with access and transportation, with the birth of countless historical settlements occurring at the intersection of major roads and along trade routes, such as the Silk Road.<\/p>\r\n

History is also filled with examples of settlements created by other forces: military, religious, administrative, and\/or cosmological forces, to name just a few more. This brings to mind William Morrish\u2019s poetic verbal and visual description of how earth and mountain \u201cevoked powerful spiritual and civic actions resulting in the inauguration of the basic formal and spatial framework of an urban terrain; cities which grow from landform\u201d (Morrish, 2005, p. i).<\/p>\r\n

Regardless of what forces are driving the creation of settlements, however, the fact remains that all aspects of settlements are steered by human needs and desires. This law is summarized well in Janet Abu-Lughod\u2019s \u201cThe Islamic City\u201d: \u201cCities are the products of many forces, and the forms that evolve in response to these forces are unique to the combination of those forces\u201d (Abu-Lughod, 1987, p. 162).<\/p>\r\n

FURTHER READING (full citations found in reference list<\/a>):<\/p>\r\n\r\n